The French colony of Newfoundland existed from 1662 until 1713 when it was given to England as part of the Treaty of Utrecht. In 1763, French fishing rights on the coast of Newfoundland were cemented by the Treaty of Paris, and French fishing villages existed there for many years. When Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, the new provincial government tried to wipe out French in Newfoundland with much success. Newfoundland French is now only spoken by a handful of elderly Newfoundlanders. Other speakers of French in Newfoundland speak the Acadian dialect and not Newfoundland French. Today, 15 000 descendants of French Newfoundlanders live in the province, and there is a movement to reestablish Newfoundland French as the French langauge of education in the province (currently, Standard French is taught in schools).
By the census of 1901 the total population of Newfoundland was 217,037, that of Labrador being 3947.
In the meantime the chagrin of the French Foreign Office at the failure of the Ford-Pennell negotiations, and the hostile attitude taken up by the Newfoundlanders in what they deemed to be the conservation of their interests, induced M. de Freycinet to devise retaliatory measures.
Nor were other opportunities soon wanting to the French to retort severely upon the Newfoundland authorities for their passage of the Bait Act, as well as to repair in large measure the injury which that act promised to inflict upon the French industry.
French fishermen returned to the Treaty Shore (and to St. Pierre and Miquelon) at the end of the war.
French and British naval squadrons on the Shore received an increasing number of complaints from their nationals, and there were several rounds of negotiations involving France, Britain and Newfoundland which attempted in vain to find a diplomatic solution satisfactory to all parties.
The route of the Newfoundland Railway was influenced by the Shore's existence, as was the decision to build the first newsprint mill at Grand Falls, and not on the west coast.
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